04.05.2000 - 27.05.2000, Karlsruhe

Jonathan Monk

SOLLEWITTONEHUNDREDCUBES...

 

From May 4 to May 27 2000 Jonathan Monk shows his film SOLLEWITTONEHUNDREDCUBESCANTSLOWSLOSEASYNOWFRONTTOBACKBACKTOFRONTONITSSIDEFOREVER.
The 16 mm film refers to Sol Lewitt’s book “100 Cubes” which was published by Cantz in 1996. The book is a collection of 100 gouaches of isometric cubes with a sequential variation in colour of the different sides of the cubes and the background. In the book the gouaches are printed on the right sides, the left sides are white. Jonathan Monk extracted every single side from the book, filmed and assembled the images in a sequence and looped the film. The sequence of the images in the various colours works like a cartoon film. The classic image of Sol Lewitt’s cubes is by very simple means transformed into an animation which reminds you more of a trailer on TV than of a documentation of the book. But, if the projection is observed with attention, you will again notice clearly the single stokes of the brush which refer to the painted origin of the images. On the one hand the film is a homage to Sol Lewitt as a founder of conceptual art, on the other hand Jonathan Monk does not allow any mystification, since he disregards the authenticity of the original work and puts it into a contemporary context. But the contemporary context is again partly refuted by using film instead of video and thereby refering to childhood memories and the historic origin of cartoon films.
extracted every single side from the book, filmed and assembled the images in a sequence and looped the film. The sequence of the images in the various colours works like a cartoon film. The classic image of Sol Lewitt’s cubes is by very simple means transformed into an animation which reminds you more of a trailer on TV than of a documentation of the book. But, if the projection is observed with attention, you will again notice clearly the single stokes of the brush which refer to the painted origin of the images. On the one hand the film is a homage to Sol Lewitt as a founder of conceptual art, on the other hand Jonathan Monk does not allow any mystification, since he disregards the authenticity of the original work and puts it into a contemporary context. But the contemporary context is again partly refuted by using film instead of video and thereby refering to childhood memories and the historic origin of cartoon films.